The invention is related to tools used by sales agents and customer service agents to facilitate telephony interactions with clients.
Many sales agents routinely place telephone calls to present and potential clients. Likewise, sales agents frequently receive telephone calls from present and potential clients. Sales agents often use automated calling software that enables the agents to easily place outgoing telephone calls and receive incoming telephone calls. The automated calling software can be resident on a computing device such as a desktop or laptop computer which is separate from, but connected, to a telephony device. In other instances, the computing device itself may act as the telephony device.
Sales agents also can utilize database software to store and retrieve information about individual clients. The information is often stored by a third party that specializes in providing customer database services. The software used to access the data, and to store new data, is typically separate from any software that is used to place and receive telephone calls. Thus, when a sales agent prepares to place a sales call to a customer, the sales agent typically queries a third party database to obtain information about the client prior to placing the telephone call to the client. Similarly, when a sales agent receives an incoming telephone call from a client, the sales agent can utilize the database software to call up information about the client after the call has been received to help the sales agent better interact with and service the client.
While a call is ongoing, or after the sales agent has completed the call, the agent may use the database software to store new information in the database. The new information could be relevant to what the agent learned while interacting with the customer during the call, information about the call itself, or information about a result of the call.
Customer service agents for a business perform some of the same functions in serving individuals who call the business for customer service. Information about a business' customers may be available in a database of customer information. When a customer service agent receives in incoming telephone call from a customer, the customer service agent can use database software to call up information about the customer or his account to help the agent assist the customer. In those instances where a customer service agent places an outgoing telephone call to a customer, perhaps to follow up with a customer, or when returning a call previously placed by the customer, the customer service agent may use database software to call up information about the customer before placing the outgoing telephone call to the customer. Likewise, the customer service agent may store information about a customer in a database during a customer service call, or after such a call has been completed. The information stored in the database could be about the reasons for the call, and the result that the customer service agent was able to achieve.
In the scenarios described above, it is necessary for the sales agent or the customer service agent to actively use the database software to obtain information about a customer from a database, and to store information about a customer or a call in the database. Performing a query can slow the agent down, which means the agent interacts with fewer customers during a given shift. Also, some agents are not adept at using such database software, and as a result, the agents are sometimes unable to locate customer information in the databases. What is lacking is an easy, automatic way for a sales agent or a customer service agent to be provided with information about a customer that does not require the agent to perform a query of a third party database. Likewise, what is lacking is a way for the agent to easily store information in a database during or after a call with a customer.